The Professor
by AubreyAnne
Summary: She just couldn't keep her eyes off of the new physics professor at her university.


Marinette had really outdone herself this time. She was in university now, for crepe's sake, and she should know better- really, the bluenette has to wonder how her mind works some days- how had she ended up taking a physics class when her major was for fashion and design?

Quickly walking down the crowded hallways, weaving through the slower moving staff and students, Marinette made a beeline to lecture hall 304A before double checking the room on her course schedule.

'This is it!' She drew in a slow, calming breath while mentally preparing herself. 'I just have to go in there, take my usual seat at the back, wait for Alya to show up, and I'll be okay. Just be calm, Marinette, you've got this.'

She did not have this.

The hall buzzed with the combined chatter of a hundred students, chairs being dragged across the tiled floors, and bags being unzipped and unpacked. She noticed multiple students with cups of coffee settled next to their ducked heads as they took the few minutes left before class to catch a little bit more sleep.

Not only was the entire lecture hall packed, it looked as though most people had decided to take her usual place in the room. What was she going to do now? If she sat in the front then the professor would probably call on her more and she wasn't even good at physics and then she'd look like an idiot and everyone would laugh at her and-

"Mare! There you are; I wasn't sure I would make it here on time." The warm, honey voice of her best friend rang out behind her left shoulder, making the small girl jump and ripping her out of her internal freak-out.

"Hey Alya, uh, looks like we're forced to the front this semester…" Trailing off awkwardly, rubbing a hand to the back of her neck nervously, Marinette took in the springy auburn hair, the bright caramel eyes, and the wide smile that stretched across her friend's cheeks causing two small dimples to form. Alya had always been much more awake and alert in the mornings- though most would consider 10am to be acceptable, Marinette was always a little grouchy until 11.

"No sweat girl, you'll just have to keep that mouth of yours under control. We wouldn't want anyone to actually hear those smartass comments of yours or else your goody-goody reputation might be tarnished." Throwing her head back in a laugh at her own joke, Marinette was able to really appreciate just how beautifully it lit up her friend's face and she was once more envious of how confidently Alya was able to carry herself- she didn't care if she was caught laughing heartily or what others may think of her and that just added to her natural appeal.

"Yeah, yeah." The bluenette grumbled under her breath while grabbing the other girl's arm and gently navigating them both into the only empty table available. "Look, we have a front row seat for whatever crotchety old man is going to try and teach us science. I'm sure it will just be _thrilling._ " She murmured while taking out her new textbook and eyeing the podium in front of their desks dubiously.

She'd tried to learn physics in her previous schooling, really she had, but it was so complicated with all of the formulas and the math involved… she just couldn't keep all of them straight in her head. So why was she here? Well, mainly it was for Alya and partially it was for her general education credits required for her degree… she had the option of a different science course, but Alya had begged her to take this one because her boyfriend was the teacher's assistant and he could help them study if need be.

Speaking of Nino, Marinette's eyes swept the classroom looking for the dark skinned man but came up empty. Was he off talking with the professor? She idly wondered what her friend would be doing as the teacher's assistant, but before she could dwell on it too long, she saw the far door of the hall open and watched as the man in question sauntered in with what looked like another student.

With a sudden jolt, Marinette realized that the other guy was handsome- unfairly handsome- how was she supposed to pay attention to the class material if her eyes were going to keep darting over to mister tall, blonde, and smartly dressed? By god, he was well dressed.

Her eyes trailed up from the mahogany leather shoes, over the neatly creased khaki colored suit pants, lingering a moment on the belt, which matched his shoes, and settling on the broad chest clothed in a white button down and sweater vest. Her heart skipped happily in her chest as she took in the neatly rolled sleeves which left his forearms delectably on display. But it was the dark, square glasses resting on the bridge of his nose, which had Marinette practically salivating.

"Girl, close your mouth." Alya's sharp gab to her ribs had her turning away from the two students to send a glare her way.

"Hey! That one hurt Al- watch your nails." The bluenette complained while picking up her pen to twiddle between her fingers while trying her hardest not to turn back and stare once more.

"Well, if you weren't ogling that guy, I wouldn't have needed to. Nino's waving at us." The redhead enthusiastically waved back and Marinette took the opportunity to look towards the two men again. Waving to Nino, she let her eyes trail to his friend who was rifling through his bag, pulling out a stack of papers, and looking around the lecture hall with an excited grin stretching across his face. Great, that just made him more attractive.

She watched as he said a couple words to Nino, directing him towards a separate desk along the side wall- Marinette wondered if they were both teacher's assistants- before he squared his shoulders and turned to make his way towards the podium right in front of her. The way his body moved had her transfixed- lithe and gangly, but strong and confident- the closer he came, the better view she got of his strong cheek bones and chiseled jaw- as he placed the papers on the podium and turned towards the class, she was able to see the vibrant emerald green of his eyes peeking out from behind his striking glasses.

"Hello class, my name is professor Agreste and I will be teaching you physics 101 for the semester." There was a collective gasp that rang out from the students behind her, and Marinette realized that she must not have been the only one to notice how young and handsome he was. Silently she cursed herself for thinking about him the way she had been.

"I admit," he continued casually once the chatter of voices had dies down, "this will be my first semester teaching- I am young and freshly out of the position that you are now in- but I believe that that fact can only help me when it comes to helping you learn. I know the stresses of life in university, I know how much work you have, how many late nights you may be going through, I even know the difficulty of working my way through schooling, and I will be lenient if something comes up."

Marinette was enthralled with his voice, soft and commanding, the way his words rolled off his tongue and through those perfectly formed lips, she couldn't stop herself from staring.

"That being said; I will not excuse laziness- I expect you to put forth the effort in my classroom to achieve the grade you desire. If you're having trouble with the material I am always glad to help walk you through it. Myself and my teaching assistant," he took a moment to point towards Nino, "will both be hosting office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays- if neither one of those times work, please contact either of us and we can set something up." His biceps flexed as he brought both hands together in front of his body and Marinette had to bite her lip to stop from whining.

"With that said, I'm going to pass around the syllabus for this semester and we will go over how this class will be run, when the lab hours are, and what you will need to pass this course." Mr. Agreste turned to gather up the stack of papers he had placed on the podium and Marinette's eyes danced along his broad shoulders and onto the curve of his back before he once more faced them.

Her breath caught in her throat as he went to hand her a small stack to pass back to the others and their eyes met. It was brief, and she could already feel the tingle of heat dancing along the bridge of her nose, but she was able to smile up at him in, what she hoped, was an encouraging way and was surprised by the corner of his mouth quirking up in reply. But then the moment ended and he was moving down along the rest of the front row.

Alya elbowed her once more into motion and Marinette was quick to grab one of the sheets for herself before turning to pass them back. Sinking down into her seat a little bit, she leaned her elbows on the table and bowed her head.

"Of _course_ we had to have the hottest professor ever." She muttered out the side of her mouth to the redhead who giggled. "It's not like I was going to have enough trouble trying to learn- now I have to do it while watching _that_ Adonis try to teach me." But now, her friend was shaking with concealed laughter and Marinette couldn't fight the grin that was taking over her face.

She could do this. It felt familiar and nice to be sitting here with Alya at her side, making dumb comments to make her laugh. Their professor had moved back to the podium once more and Marinette was surprised to see the shocking green eyes on her once more before they quickly darted away to address the class once more.

It wasn't the smoothest first day that anyone had ever had- professor Agreste couldn't get the projector to display his syllabus on the front wall, and even when he did manage, it took a little bit to get the words in focus- a late student banged the door open so loudly that he squeaked out a yelp of surprise and dropped the clicker- and more than once a cell phone would blare loudly, reverberating off the walls and causing the new teacher to stumble and lose his place.

With each new interruption, Marinette could see the most adorable shade of pink darkening the tanned skin of his cheeks before he could gather himself enough to press on. It was nearing the half way point of the lecture when she started to see the panic dancing behind his eyes and taking a look around, she could only guess that it was because he was losing the focus on his students. Multiple heads were down on their desks, some had their eyes trained unflinchingly on their laptops or cell phones, and even one girl had pulled out a bottle of nail polish to fix the chips that Marinette could see three rows down.

That's when things started to veer off course a little bit- he had decided to try and tell a joke to liven things up- he must have had some prepared because her blue eyes watched, transfixed, and he flipped from one flash card to another before settling on one.

"Hey- I know this stuff can be kind of boring on the first day… It reminds me of a joke one of my old physics teachers told me. Which books are the hardest to force yourself to read through?" He paused for a moment until eyes started to flick from their screens and onto him. Marinette watched the affectionate grin light up his face once more before he continued to the punchline. "Friction books."

Goans- lots of roll your eyes, lean away, try not to show that it was clever- goans, filled the hall and, while she had joined in with her own eye roll- because how could someone so attractive think that was funny- she noticed the disheartened slant of his mouth and promptly refocused on him as the others slowly quieted back down.

"Don't like that one, huh? Well, maybe-" He had started to flip around the flash cards once more and Marinette watched in horror as all at once they flipped out of his hands and onto the floor. She could see his blush more clearly now as he bent down to gather them up.

It took about two seconds before she was up out of her seat and moving towards him to help- she couldn't let him flounder like that on his first day right?

There was laughter ringing around them but, right as she kneeled down to help him pick them back up, she heard his voice laced with frustration. "Oh, fuck me." No one else was close enough to hear it- she was sure that he hadn't meant anyone to actually hear him- but as his startled eyes danced from the cards that she held out to him and then up to her face, Marinette couldn't help the words that slipped out.

"Maybe later." The confused expression on his face melted away as he finally understood what she had said. She sat there, heart thumping wildly at her own brazen joke, before the boisterous sound of his laugher washed over her and then she was laughing as well, heat burning her cheeks red.

He was still laughing as she turned tail and went back to reclaim her spot next to Alya before he quieted the class and went on to cover how the lab hours would work. "Girl, what did you say?" Her friend giggled in her ear. "He can't stop staring at you."

Marinette caught his eye from behind the fringe of her bangs and smiled as sweetly as possible before ducking her head and explaining in hushed tones. "He was frustrated and said something like 'fuck me' and I just straight up said 'maybe later'."

"You did not!" The red head hissed before having to stifle her amusement with her hands, body shaking wildly, air half sucked in around her laughs. Marinette tried not to notice how the professor had once more caught her eye while covering when their tests would be.

"I did." She couldn't help but to shrug as Alya squealed in delight next to her. Maybe sitting in the front wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to her this semester if professor Agreste was able to keep catching her gaze his this.


End file.
